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Goblin Summoner #1

Goblin Summoner

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Life and death decided by the draw of a card!

When an accident claims his life, Gareth finds himself reborn on Acamida. Dropped into a world where sorcerers draw magical power from a deck of cards, summoning monsters and flinging spells, Gareth must adapt to having arcane power at his fingertips. It’s just a shame he’s found himself with the weakest cards around—goblins!

Joined by a fallen goddess, a deposed demon king and surly local, Gareth sets out into Acamida. In a realm where experience points and levels are very real, Gareth must grow stronger if he intends to have his second life last longer than his first. With monsters around every corner and dungeons beneath his feet, Acamida is a dangerous place.

As Gareth finds new cards and grows in power, the rumbles of war stir in the west. If he’s going to survive Gareth will need to master his deck and find the strength hidden within his goblin allies.

484 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 31, 2021

476 people are currently reading
262 people want to read

About the author

Tracy Gregory

31 books41 followers

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5 stars
286 (40%)
4 stars
234 (33%)
3 stars
116 (16%)
2 stars
52 (7%)
1 star
14 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
Profile Image for Johnny.
2,174 reviews82 followers
April 5, 2021
Book one

Mistakes: The real problem with this book is the seemingly total lack of reactions to being dumped on another planet.

Plot: Card battles while an interesting idea wasn't done well because they just went to easy.

Characters: Lack of emotion killed this book for me.

5/10
2,530 reviews72 followers
April 29, 2021
A boring, predictable mess.

The deck building concept could be fun, but by taking into a general melee it loses any semblance of control. The main characters are meant to be silly and bumbling, but just come off as naive and idiotic. The overarching story is predictable. The nobility is just more of the same, completely lacking in any originality. This is just poorly thought out.
682 reviews9 followers
June 15, 2021
GOBLIN SUMMONER is the first in the DECKBUILDING LITRPG by TRACY GREGORY and I truly hope this is the first in a long series! Totally enjoyable,fast paced and loaded with goblins/monsters/angels/demons and some really nasty bad guys!

Gareth is a human from Earth who died while plugging in a game console . He goes from being dead to being plunged into the world of Acamida, where sorcerers and Gareth draw their powers from decks of cards that are merged with them. Gareth finds he is favored with goblins,which are pretty poor choices of monsters. As Gareth moves around more in Acamida he finds more friends,more enemies and more adventures .

I loved GOBLIN SUMMONER! The characters are so funny , each with their own decks join up with Gareth,who himself adds humor to his situation, even when facing the most deadliest of monsters and odds. I want to hear more from Acamida!

Graham Mack does a great job with the multitudes of voices!

I recieved this audiobook free in exchange for an honest review.
36 reviews
February 14, 2022
Goblin Summoner is a fast-paced novel about a nobody nerd who is reincarnated in a deck-building fantasy world. Its a decent enough book, but definitely something meant for young adults. There are some spelling and grammatical errors, so the story could do with a second edit.

For the most part, I dropped the book because the story didn't appeal to me. The reason is that the monsters are humanized too much. For example, Gremlin mother crying because humans are killing her children. It's just glossed over as our MC just goes through and kills them without any second thoughts. Its also a bit absurd that a nerdy earthling takes charge of the group and tells everyone how to fight/build their decks when there's literally a 1000 year old demon in their party. Somehow he is made out to be the most competent party member when he knows nothing about this new world.

Like I said, this book is definitely something that a young adult might enjoy who is looking for a quick-paced fantasy novel. Just not for me.
Profile Image for Omri Dallal.
420 reviews3 followers
February 17, 2022
This might be the most British book I have ever read

I love seeing the limits of litrpg stretch and include other possibilities than virtual reality. In fact this is the first really different book in the genre I found so far. I mean, it's not always VR stories, but it's mostly level based characters that improve physical abilities and never ​something like ​a card base hero.

Besides the new gimmick, which is cool, this book is packed with a lot of good old British humor and sarcasm. The four main characters are unique, fun and really complement each other as a group. It is also nice that they are not some OP heroes who luckily got an amazing card that always wins the duel but a well versed group that each of them have his own strengths to bring to the table.

The main story goes a bit fast here and the big battle comes from nowhere, but it is still very interesting. Also the world building of the story is solid and believable. You can see there are well-grounded political powers and class hierarchy in the society.

This book is a 4.5/5 for me. It is highly recommended as a palate cleanser for a junky reader like me, and also for someone who looks for a cool and fun book to read.

Note, this won't work as a standalone book. Get ready to read the rest.
Profile Image for Jon Svenson.
Author 8 books112 followers
April 6, 2021
I read both Real-Time Star Commander novels by the same author, and hadn't expected another book out so soon.

Goblin Summoner starts out with Gareth, a human from Earth who makes the mistake of buying a dodgy game console that electrocutes him. Honestly, the beginning doesn't matter, although there is a lot of talk throughout the book about villains, heroes, Gods and the like.

The story is a mix between Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: the Gathering. Cards are used to fight with for those lucky enough to have a deck. The decks can only have so many cards until you upgrade them, and the cards have the same limitation. Mana is used to play the cards, which is another limitation. Overall, I thought it was a good balance.

We follow Gareth after he wakes up naked in the endless forest, fighting elementals as he figures the system out. His team grows as they progress on quests, eventually ending up at a city. From there they are tasked with clearing out parts of the undercity and eventually, defending the city itself.

Overall, the book is a lot of fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. A good amount of time is spent on the cards, adding new cards and the like, but it never becomes tedious. There is a lot of action in between this, battling monsters from gremlins to nightmares to holy beings.

The notifications are mostly card based, although quests can be generated. I expected someone like a king to be able to see notifications of what is happening in their empire, but apparently not. I think this brings the book closer to gamelit than LitRPG, but I enjoyed it either way.

If you're looking for a fun fantasy portal adventure and can get past the slow start, I recommend this book. The story definitely picks up the further you go, and the characters are distinct enough (and play off each other well enough) that it's a lot of fun.

Recommended. 5/5*
2,478 reviews17 followers
May 19, 2021
I thought this was a bit of a muddle.
593 reviews21 followers
June 6, 2021
Not a fan of deck building, especially in the midst of a fight. Weird. Characters a bit annoying and irritating.
Profile Image for Pablo García.
856 reviews22 followers
May 6, 2022
This is a card summoner style fantasy novel series. It is isekai (reincarnated to another world) and is similar to Konosuba in that the Goddess (Magdalena, Magda for short), that is in charge of the "reincarnations" is sent with the reincarnated main character, to this alternate reality world. Card Game Summoner games became really popular with Yu-Gi-Oh! game. This author not only writes this novel series but tries to inspire its readers into "playing his card Goblin Summoner game". My favorite web novel series based on a "card game" is called "Monster Paradise" and is still on-going in (May, 2022). Main characters then are Gareth (reincarnated "player of the card game") and Magdalena the "Former Judger Goddess".
The first volume is pretty straight forward. The game mechanics are a little bit complicated at first, mainly because reincarnated main characters are not given the rules and Goddess person in charge of reincarnations does not know the rules either (she just becomes another player in this new world.) The story is well thought out. Their knowledge of the game rules evolve as they experience the game rules first hand. Volume one has 400+ pages with 31 chapters (about 13 pages per chapter, which is on the medium size). Once you finish the first book, author offers to send you the Beastiary (collection of Monsters and stats) that were seen in this first volume (for reading and For eventual gaming). Beastiary design could have been more card-like or table-like to improve the visual of the information displayed.
546 reviews
July 29, 2024
Not for me. AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

I don't play Magic the Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh or card games like that so I feel like I might not have been the target market for this. The protagonist is a game nerd who is put into a world where magic is channelled through card games.

The premise is ok although people keep saying how useless goblins are when they seem to be similar to all the other monsters. The fights are fairly dull as the protagonists get unbeatable battle shields and never really seem to struggle.

I thought there would be more clever card loopholes but everything seemed rather straightforward. The protagonist is your normal everyman and he picks up a cadre of followers who all just ally with him because of... narrative inertia?

I never really cared about the characters too much since they never seemed to struggle. There was some good banter and the dialogue was much more realistic than most books but it wasn't enough to fully redeem the story.

The narration was bad. The narrator sounded alternately bored and whiney. All of the main characters sounded tired and fed up. There were little mispronunciations too like "He heard a wall of agony." rather than "wail".

Overall, probably a good book for card game people.
Profile Image for Colin Newton.
56 reviews
June 5, 2023
Summary: Gareth has just died on Earth and is sent as a soul waiting for judgement before the goddess Magdalena. Between being sent into oblivion and being reincarnated as a hero, Magdalena takes pity on the soul, and against the orders of her higher-ups, she sends the soul to be reincarnated on Acamida. Little does she know that she will be sent shortly after Gareth due to her transgressions. Now, Gareth and Magda must find a life for themselves on this strange new reality where magic takes the form of cards. Will they thrive - or will they fall along the path to the peak?

Good:
• Card Mechanics
• Strategy/Action
• Diversity of Settings
• Pacing of Story

Bad:
• Character Development
• Main Character Energy
• Negativity Surrounding Goblin Affinity (annoys me how author writes the public to look down on Gareth’s affinity when it’s no secret that goblins are good in standard TCG games like Magic)
2,348 reviews
August 31, 2024
What a great book. After realizing that I loved books based around deckbuilding litRPG's. I'm now actively loading up and reading everyone one of 'em. This book didn't disappoint!!! It was absodamnlutely AwesomeSauce!
What happens when a human Gareth, a Goddess, a Demon Lord and a Wyrmkin step into a tavern? Believe you me, it's not the start of a bad joke, but the beginnings of the adventuring team that's gonna shake the world of Acamida! And what happens when Gareth is Isekaied from earth to Acamida because of a Goddess' pity. So grab this action-driven audiobook and enjoy watching Gareth draw a goblin deck and start leveling up.
Ohhhh and yeah, Graham Mack is definitely a great voice actor inspite of his British accent.
15 reviews
April 11, 2021
Suprising

I'm not really a fan of card games, they always seem to be way to complicated to properly follow. But I don't know what it is about this book, but I LOVED the magic system. It was refreshing to have clear rules the magic follows and how being creative can maximize the effect of those rules. I wouldn't be upset if the rules aren't 100% set yet, a deck advancement rule wouldn't be shocking or unwanted really for example. But I definitely recommend this book and can't wait for the next one.
Profile Image for Jason Coleman.
283 reviews5 followers
December 14, 2022
Great idea….but riddled with problems.
It sounds really cool, a world with decks and RPG fantasy, but there is so much more that is needed for a great narrative: interesting characters (not really), vivid world-building (definitely not), and a compelling storyline (no).

The card system was never explained very well, I had a very hard time visualizing anything that was going on, and the author just seemed to make up the rules as he went along.

Interesting concept, sorely lacking in execution.
Profile Image for UnHappyMeal.
50 reviews1 follower
May 24, 2023
It's a good story and I like most of the characters. BUT, the reason I gave 4 stars is because 1: the author uses the word, "whilst" WAY too often. Not sure if he is trying to sound more educated or something but he never once uses the word, "while". Only, "whilst". It's very annoying. 2: there is a bunch of typos and incorrect grammar thrown around. Making it hard to read sometimes. Other than that, I really enjoyed it.

Edit: I've just finished book two and my reasons for the rating haven't changed at all. Sigh*
73 reviews3 followers
November 10, 2023
If I said that this was my first card related book, i would be understating it, as I have never watched any card related series ir consumed any related media expect a season of vanguard as a child. So it was whole new experience. That being said I felt something wrong in the way the card battles evolved as the series moved on. It felt as it was slowly moving for a card theme to a general summoner styled story. Less attention was given to the actual card details, monster stats, combination more on simply combat. So the story overall was decent bit episodic may be.
88 reviews1 follower
July 30, 2021
Nice book with grammatical mistakes

First of all, I enjoyed the book. However, I would like to say that there are quite a few grammatical errors in the book that definitely took away from my enjoyment. For example, not putting question marks at the ends of questions and putting them at the ends of statements. It's a similar story with commas, with them being absent from certain sentences, making them run on, and being wrongly applied in other instances.
894 reviews3 followers
April 2, 2023
A very pleasant surprise. With not many deckbuilding LitRPGs around, I gave this a chance and it was fantastic. Well written with an interesting team of characters. Gareth (dead at the start of the story but sent to a new world by a sympathetic goddess), Magda (the goddess who spared Gareth, but punished for it by given a mortal body), a weir-kin duelist and the former big bad (who is now a level 1 but with all his same memories).
Profile Image for Alvaro Ruiz.
23 reviews
August 29, 2024
DNF.
The novel is very bad. There is no deep characters or meaning to the plot. The characters just spawn there and go for a job without any sense. Is doesn't make any sense how they see a demon and said "ey yeah join us in our mission to... Who knows?". The relationship between the MC and the rest of the characters is cringe.
I don't really know how this has this high score or how there are more books.
123 reviews
April 2, 2021
Brilliantly Amazing!

Absolutely loved this book, cannot wait for the next one. Great characters, worldbuilding & the magic system is just amazing. I've been looking for a book like this for ages where people fight with magic cards, only other one I've found us 'The Alchemist'. Only problem was a few grammar mistakes but other than that was just brilliant.
Profile Image for Charles Koontz.
24 reviews
April 9, 2021
Fun read

Loved the feel of basically MTG in a lit rpg book. Interesting to see how the series evolves more. Characters grow a little in this book but not a lot and some of the minor characters are one dimensional but still enjoyable. Wish some of the battles went a few more rounds a few were over very quick l. V
631 reviews15 followers
May 5, 2021
Strange one

I thought the book would be about like Gambit but i was wrong!! It was kind of land to be honest !! Why send your monsters after monsters just kill the duelist and it's over!! Another the mar character wanted to be a HERO so bad that he peed his pants!! Lost interest in the book when that happened
7 reviews
May 11, 2021
Surprising Book

I'm a huge TCG player and a big reader so when I saw this is had to get it and it did not disappoint. I'm honestly shocked there hasn't been another book of this type out there already but glad this is the first one atleast I had seen out there. Really excited and hope that this series will continue due to its mechanics for fighting and charactor interactions.
78 reviews1 follower
May 16, 2021
Good story

It's never a good sign when you find yourself skimming through reams of justifications and pointless inner monologue. Sometimes author's need to just let the characters be the characters. That, and some clunky writing at times, aside, this was a fun and mostly enjoyable book.
49 reviews
June 24, 2021
Solid story 👌

The story is really good, but the author needs to use words other than "said" every time a character speaks. Sometimes people question, ask, or inquire. Maybe they quip, retort, or exclaim. They could also use an editor. The errors weren't as bad as some litrpg books I've read, but there are a lot of them.
Profile Image for Chris Evans.
903 reviews43 followers
November 30, 2022
The magic system is fun if a bit silly. It's based around cards in an actual card game style (no motorcycles yet). It most reminds me of Hearthstone, if your hearthstone deck and mana size could level up.

What I like most about it is it's got some really good interplays between what is thought of as good and evil, with some very likeable characters.
Profile Image for Clint Young.
849 reviews
December 25, 2022
KU Review

Pretty fun blend of action and humor. Characters were quirky and well done. I especially like the complete explanation of system mechanics at the end. That’s a cool add on.

As the title says this is a review for Kindle Unlimited and as such is a reflection of my enjoyment of the book and in no way reflects cost to value analysis.
Profile Image for Colin Brine.
31 reviews
February 27, 2023
I really enjoyed this first book - it's my first foray into the litRPG world specifically and I am hooked! I've been reading a lot of mediocre stuff recently and this was an awesome breath of fresh air - it just kept me interested and engaged the whole time. I'm exciting to read the rest of the series!

Highly recommended!
4 reviews
April 14, 2021
The goblin was a fun take on underdog magic

A fun take on card magic, while maintaining realistic political issues and a fun world.magic system. Can't say I'm not hoping for a sequel soon.
Profile Image for Harold.
21 reviews
April 29, 2021
A good start. It is an interesting take in Gamelit. Incredibly light read. Never felt there were any tension. Part of the problem is other people look down on archtypes without any real reason. Did like how he showed multiple deck types.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews

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